Locals Dominating Croatian World Games

It is the local Croatians who are dominating the Croatian World Games which started this week in the capital Zagreb…

Over 700 athletes with Croatian heritage from 24 countries are competing this week in 16 sports, including athletics, bowls, judo, karate, basketball, football, indoor soccer, volleyball, beach volleyball, swimming, rugby, handball, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo and water polo, and it is the locals who are dominating after medals were awarded in five sports.

The team from Croatia won the handball tournament, with teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Austria in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. In the games taekwondo event it the medal winners were Ivana Džeko (-57kg, B&H), Damir Šunjić (+80kg, B&H), Juraj Stinčić (-80kg, Croatia) and Gabrijel Puklin (-68kg, Croatia). Zdravko Ferenčina (+60 years, Croatia), Mišel Mladima (-60 years, Croatia), Marko Stanić (-50 years, B&H), Boris Knezović (-30 years, B&H), Petra Orlić (-17 years, B&H) and Valentin Perić (-17 years, Croatia).

The locals also won the tennis event, with Romana Kovačević and Renata Šašak from Croatia winning the women’s and Mladen Častek, Mladen Lukić, Zlatko Blagaj and Vanja Mrazovac all from Croatia winning medal, as well Nenad Jandrić from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Miren Ivanković from America and Ivo Beliš from Slovenia. Hrvoje Šimunović from Croatia won the bowls event, whilst father and son pairing Nebojša and Marko Gabrić from Serbia won the table tennis event.